AI War:Missiles
How Do I Get EMPs, Nukes, And Other Warheads?
A: All of these can be built at the Missile Silo, a very expensive Constructor unit. Each player can only build a few Missile Silos, so be mindful of where you build them. The Missile Silo can be found under the CONST tab of your command station. Be aware that all of the warheads come with an AI Progress cost, which can be pretty significant. Built and use warheads with care!
On the bright side, the AI does not have or use warheads at all. It has a variety of core ships that humans can never build (only capture with parasites), but warheads are the unique humans technology.
Nukes
How Do I Use Nukes?
A: Nukes are the most powerful warhead in the game. They are wicked expensive (100k each of metal and crystal), they take an hour to build (or 16 minutes with 3 engineers assisting the silo), and they and detonating them also has the negative effect of raising the AI Progress by 50 (in addition to any AI Progress increases that are incurred based on what you destroy). Oh, and there's the risk of accidentally having one of your own warheads detonate on your planet or an ally's planet, which is super bad news.
So, those are the negatives about nukes... why the heck would you want to use one? Well, when one goes off, it completely destroys all non-core, non-starship ships at a planet (plus it destroys the planet itself, and all the resource spots there). This is something to only be done with care, but it can really be a lifesaver in some situations. For instance, in one solo campaign there were two Mark IV planets right next to the player's home planet.
This was a really tough map, and so the player was nine hours in and both those two planets remained untouched. The player hadn't even managed to pull off a gate-raid, although he had tried several times. This meant that there were two hostile wormholes leading right into his home planet, which in turn meant that he had to keep a pretty sizable garrison there. This was inconvenient and expensive, and his resources keep getting destroyed and needing to be rebuilt. With a couple of nukes, he could take out those two planets with relative ease -- but the cost in terms of AI Progress is pretty steep, so it had to be really worth it. He thought it was, but using a nuke on one of the planets actually cost him the game...
We mentioned that starships are immune to nukes, right? Well, as it turned out the AI had a huge number of starships on the planet he nuked: 11 Zinth and 19 Spire. He had 20 planets and around 1,500 ships (this campaign was not going overly well, as has been noted, so he was low on forces). With that many starships suddenly set loose from guarding their (now destroyed) planet, he lost every planet he controlled while massing his forces at his home planet. He had around 800 ships that survived and made it to his planet to defend, and he set up mines and turrets all over the place, but it wasn't enough; the starships still slaughtered him.
Clearly, before you nuke a planet like that you need to deal with the starships first. Even with just four or five starships there it's something to be prepared for; that can still cost you several planets, or even the game if they are near your home planet and choose to strike out in that direction. One of the many dangers of nukes.
We also mentioned that nukes can be set off on your own planet. Basically, there are two ways to set off a nuke or emp -- scrap it yourself, or have it get shot down by enemies. If enemies are on your planet and happen to destroy the nuke, there goes your planet and all the resources and ships on it. Your home planet command station is immune to nukes, just like core ships and starships are, so those will at least survive (you won't lose the game immediately just because of one misfire, in other words), but it is still a VERY costly mistake to make.
So, given all this, nukes come with a little in-game warning that only advanced players should try to use them. Nuking a whole planet out of existence is great (morbid) fun, but the potential repercussions can be pretty dire. Just as in real life, firing a nuke is not something to do casually.
EMPs
How Do I Use EMPs?
A: Compared to nukes, EMPs are a much more casual affair. They cost half as much in terms of time-to-build and resources, and they don't have any negative consequences in terms of AI Progress or anything else.
Setting off an EMP at a planet will paralyze all non-core, non-starship ships at that planet (enemy ships, your ships, and allied ships). This makes space docks and starship constructors pause in building, it makes all affected ships unable to fire or move, it reveals all cloaked ships, it temporarily disables all mines, and it temporarily takes down all force fields. These effects last for about thirty seconds.
There are a lot of potential uses for EMPs, but the best are in concert with starships or with a fleet waiting just on the other side of a nearby wormhole. Once the EMP has detonated and paralyzed all the enemy ships, bring your fleet in and use the brief window to accomplish whatever needs doing. This is a great way to take out a force field that has a lot of high-level ships under it, for instance (in those situations, it can sometimes be very tricky to take out the force fields with bombers alone). This can also be used as an effective way to do a gate-raid on a planet that otherwise has too many high-level ships.
So EMPs tend to be way safer to use, but a lot trickier in most circumstances. They definitely help as a siege-breaking tactic, though!
Lightning Warheads
How Do I Use Lightning Warheads?
A: Lightning Warheads are the least-expensive warhead, and they also pack the weakest punch. When a lightning warhead is set off (by being shot down or by being scrapped), it emits a single blast of lightning that does heavy damage to all ships in its range. This is like a very powerful one-shot Electric Shuttle or Lightning Turret. It takes about four of these warheads to bring down the Mark III starships -- but if you send several of these warheads into a pack of those starships, you can take them all out at once!
Similarly, you can pretty much obliterate whatever is waiting near the other side of a hostile wormhole by sending a lightning turret through. It bears noting that the range of the Lightning Warhead is only 1,000, so it is a much more localized warhead than the nuke. The Lightning Warhead has the advantages of not causing the AI Progress to increase upon detonation, though, and also the advantage of working just fine against core ships and starships. Both warheads fill very different strategic niches.
Armored Warheads
How Do I Use Armored Warheads?
A: Armored Warheads are identical to Lightning Warheads (see above), except that they are almost completely indestructible by enemy forces and they cost vastly more. These are the most expensive warhead in the game for good reason -- they are an almost foolproof way to do a gate-raid. Just be careful that the enemy command station is not in range when the warhead goes off, or you might unleash the hordes of enemy ships that you presumably build this titanic warhead to avoid.
Armored Warheads are very useful for doing strikes against targets deep in enemy territory, or against very large groups of starships that might shoot down (and thus set off) a lightning warhead before it gets in range to actually hurt the bulk of the starships. Still, armored warheads are so expensive in terms of metal and crystal that their use is almost always going to be a last resort for most players.
